Don`t Let Politics Or Ignorance Block Medicinal Use Of Marijuana

People who smoke marijuana for legitimate medicinal purposes are not wild- eyed, crazed drug addicts shoving this country over the edge of sanity into the clutches of immorality and depravity.

Try telling that to the U.S. Public Health Service.

On Tuesday, the government agency said Americans suffering from AIDS, cancer and glaucoma cannot use marijuana legally.

The official explanation is a fear that the drug might make them sicker. Bill Griggs, the agency`s spokesman, said there was concern that the drug might be harmful to people with compromised immune systems.

Sure. More likely, the concern was a maneuver designed to appease voters during an election year by trying to portray this as a move against the evils of drug abuse. If it wasn`t for the fact that this insensitive move will harm those in legitimate need of marijuana to ease their suffering, the whole thing could be regarded as perversely comical.

The recent decision does not affect 13 people who are already legally smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes. Unfortunately, there are 28 patients whose applications for government-supplied marijuana had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration but who now, due to this new ruling, cannot legally get the drug they need.

Dr. James Mason, chief of the Public Health Service, announced in June 1991 that until the government finished a review of marijuana`s reported health benefits and potential dangers, it would stop processing applications and would withhold marijuana from the 28 patients.

Advocates of medical marijuana say it combats nausea, vomiting and weight loss common to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to some AIDS sufferers, reduces eye pressure in the treatment of glaucoma, and helps reduce muscle spasms common to such neurological conditions as multiple sclerosis.

Elvy Musikka of Hollywood knows as well as anyone how much marijuana can help. In August 1988, Broward Circuit Judge Mark E. Polen ruled that Musikka`s use of marijuana was a medical necessity and acquitted her of drug possession charges. It was the first such decision in Florida and the third in the country.

Musikka, who was 44 at the time, had lost all but 10 percent of her sight in one eye to glaucoma and had begun both growing and buying the drug illegally for her own health. For Musikka, marijuana was the only hope she had of preserving what little sight she had left. She believes the drug has improved the sight in both her eyes.

Now, she says government intervention is depriving people of better lives. ``Ignorance has led us to blindness.``

She has collected signatures of 25,000 people on petitions urging the government to end a ban on medicinal use of marjuana.

Musikka`s right to smoke marijuana is safe. Politics -- and ignorance -- slammed the door on the others like her in need.